The sources are very upset about the way the GWU is dealing with Union Press, which prints l-Orizzont and it-Torca, and Union Print, as well as the way it treats employees of other union companies.

Sources at Union Print have accused the General Workers Union of using two weights and two measures when it came to its own employees.

"The union rightly accuses the government about the hiring of consultants but itself hires consultants and pays them very good money considering what a small enterprise Union Press is, but then is miserly with the workers," the sources said.

Employees at Ritescan, which is owned by the GWU and which is being closed down, are now being offered less favourable conditions of work at other union companies. When other companies are involved, the union always insists that employees get at least as much as they were earning before they lost their job.

"We pay the union membership fees because we have to be union members to work with union companies but we have no one to protect us," they said.

The sources said the GWU administration often pointed accusing fingers at Union Press staff and accused them of making losses.

"Union Print is owed over Lm100,000 by the Malta Labour Party. We have never been told whether there is any plan for this considerable sum of money to be repaid to Union Print.

"Full-page MLP adverts are printed free of charge in l-Orizzont every day and in It-Torca. A full-page advert costs Lm231. This means the union is giving the party close to Lm85,000 worth of free advertising a year. It is no excuse to say, as the union does, that it gets free airtime on Super 1.

"Union Press employees do not get anything out of the airtime the union gets on Super 1 radio. If they want sound business practices, everyone should pay for what they get; Union Press is not the union, after all," the employees said.

The sources said employees were also upset about the pressure exerted by top GWU officials in journalistic and commercial decisions at Union Press.

"They also stopped us from carrying MIC adverts for which good money was being paid.

"It was only after pressure in writing by the senior management that the union allowed the adverts back and is now carrying a reply by the union, free of charge, on an adjacent page."

Asked for his views about these matters, Mr Zarb said he could not comment as this information was of a commercial nature.